Four boys, their mom, and her cello . . . and now a little sister!

The Big Five

D told me last week, “I’m tired of being little. I want to be big.” I asked him when he would be big and he said, “December 20th.”

I’m not sure what that means. His birthday was this past Friday, Nov. 27. He is now five!

He’s been looking forward to being five for such a long time. That must be a big age. He keeps telling us that, “When I am five, I will…” I can’t remember most of them, it was a very ambitious list though. I do know (and I think this was his most exciting goal) that he said he would read when he was five. I also think he expected it to be an automatic skill–You turn five, you can read! It’s magic!–but we found out that was not the case! He has agreed to start reading lessons tomorrow though.

He also had a huge list of stuff he would eat when he was five. Whenever we’d serve anything he didn’t like, he’d say, “I’ll eat it when I am five.” We were going to have quite a feast on his birthday with mashed potatoes, rice, cream of wheat, pineapple, grapefruit, mushrooms, celery, corn, and peas, among other things that he would never try. So far, though, I haven’t noticed a change in his dietary habits.

Of course on his birthday, we let him pick what we ate. So we started off the morning with donuts. And sprinkles.

We had a lunchtime party with Grandma, Poppa, and the great-grandparents. I don’t think he ate a thing though. He was too excited and was being too silly to eat, at least until it was time for cake.

He wanted a train cake. Again. We seem to have two kinds of decorated birthday cakes at our house: train cakes and construction cakes. He helped me make it though, and even figured out some math with the candles. 4 (little candles) plus 1 (big candle) makes FIVE! And 2 plus 2 plus 1 makes FIVE! And 3 plus 1 plus 1 makes FIVE!

Apparently he thought we were singing “Happy Birthday” too loudly and plugged his ears. This kid constantly cracks us up. He is so funny! We are so grateful to have him in our family though. Happy Birthday D!

Modelling his new "manly" apron from Great-grandma J (he loves to help in the kitchen)